PACK ICE. 241 



lying spur of the mountain, but failed to over- 

 take them. On his way back to camp he saw 

 a caribou cow with a small calf and two bull 

 moose, both with bad heads, the one only having 

 one horn. It was one of these bulls that he 

 tried to call up to him, but without success, by 

 grunting and bellowing thi'ough a birch bark 

 trumpet in a manner which Louis declared to 

 be like the cry of a moose cow. 



It now seemed clear that the caribou had left 

 the open summit of Plateau Mountain, and we 

 could not afford the time to look for them on 

 the neighbouring ranges, as with the return of 

 the cold weather it was necessary to get out of 

 the coimtry before the rivers froze solid. We 

 therefore returned to the cabin at the foot of 

 the mountain on the following day, and on 

 October 2nd once more started in our canoes 

 for Selkirk, overtaking our fi-iends about noon 

 the next day. 



The nights were now very cold, and the river 



became so full of large sheets of floating ice 



that our progress was very much impeded. On 



several occasions these masses of floating ice 



16 



